It was a big deal for a woman to establish credit in her own name, even into the 1980's - if that's your question.

Back in the 60's my mother had "charge cards" at local department stores, and my father would pay them off each month. Larger stores, like Sears and Penneys, would issue cards in the woman's name, but with the man being primary on the account. I think that must have been the norm for middle and upper-middle class families in the 60's. (She also got a weekly allowance to buy the groceries and household supplies.)

My own mother was ill-prepared when she became a young widow (in her mid-forties, maybe) with a houseful of kids to raise and not even having a clue how to balance a checkbook. (Depending on your age, you may be wondering, "What's a checkbook?")

Yes, I've seen that statement on feminist lists of how women were/are oppressed. As with most such other things they list, this is very, very misleading.

As others have indicated, nationally recognized credit cards didn't even exist until the late 1950s and then they were very difficult to obtain. The vast majority of people, male or female didn't qualify. Even in the early 1980s, when I was a young adult, I could only get a credit card if my parent's co-signed for it. It's not like now where anyone can get a credit card no matter how bad their credit is.

So yeah, it's true that it was difficult for women to get credit cards then, but what they conveniently omit is it was difficult for men to get them too.

The credit card companies have always been in business to make money. It never mattered what gender it came from. Fewer cards were distributed to females because fewer of them were gainfully employed enough to get past the risk factors the company used.